The Defining Tastes of National Cuisines

• Barbara Walsh Kumm


• 3 Aug 2015

National cuisines are defined by the interplay of culture, customs and traditions of the country that evolved over extended periods of time, the locally available ingredients and spices, and the manners of food preparations and presentations of meals. Most cuisines are readily defined by the use of certain ingredients or spices.

According to Dan Kopf of Priceonomics in the blog What Are the Defining Ingredients of a Culture’s Cuisine?, “Defining a national or cultural cuisine is tricky business. .. But just because it’s difficult to define, doesn’t mean we can’t try…”

What Priceonomics did was to use the popular recipes from Epicurious with a “cuisine” tag to understand which ingredients make certain cuisines distinct – the “Greek” as a Greek or the “Indian” as an Indian. Just as what makes “Thai,” “Jewish,” “Mediterranean,” etc. distinct in their tastes.

The dataset used in this study came from over 13,000 recipes recipes posted on Epicurious by late 2013, and the recipe’s cuisine tag. The data set includes both savory and sweet dishes from 26 different cuisines …. Because many of the recipes on Epicurious come from American publications like Gourmet and Bon Appetit, the findings do however represent a US-centric view of world cuisines.

The blog National cuisines: What ingredients make dishes from different cultures distinctive?

by James Rush for The Independent – Lifestyle/Food and Drink News reviewed and simplified the findings:

Here is what it found:

African: caraway, American: apple, Asian: sesame oil; Cajun/Creole: okra; Central/South American: avocado; Chinese: peanut oil; Eastern European/Russian: egg noodle; English/Scottish: current; French: tarragon; German: sauerkraut ; Greek: feta cheese; Indian: Black mustard seed oil; Irish: whisky; Italian: romano cheese; Japanese: katsuobushi; Jewish: apricot; Middle Eastern: roasted sesame seeds; Scandinavian: herring; Southern states: corn grit; Southwestern: black beans; Spanish/Portuguese: saffron; Thai: galangal; Vietnamese: Thai pepper; Moroccan: caraway; Mexican: avocado; and Mediterranean: feta cheese.

Points to Note:

• Results are skewed towards American perspectives: “… the blog acknowledges, many of the recipes are from US sources, and so the results of the study are skewed towards how Americans see cuisines from different nationalities. It also appears to lump together certain countries – one of the tags is simply “African” – while the US itself is looked at in a lot more detail.”

• The most common ingredient: To identify the national cuisine’s “most distinctive ingredient,” Priceonomics examined the ingredients that most frequently appeared in the different recipes for that country. It then listed the 26 cuisines in their dataset.

• The cooking lubricant: For a big number of cuisines, the cooking lubricant is the most common ingredient.  Germans, Scandinavians and English/Scottish prefer butter, while the Greek, Spanish and Portuguese go for olive oil.

• Common seasonings: Universally used are condiments or seasonings to flavor dishes. The most common are garlic, onion, fish sauce and soy sauce. Galangal or Siamese ginger is used in about 10 percent of Thai dishes.

• The Jewish egg: In the Jewish cuisine, egg is the most used ingredient. It is thought to be related to “the unique place of eggs in Jewish dietary restrictions.”

• National stereotypes: A number of national cuisines do succumb to what they are known for, such as apples for Americans, sauerkraut, for the Germans, tarragon for the French, whiskey for Ireland, and herring for Scandinavia.

• Surprise! Surprise! Others revealed more surprising common ingredients, such as the humble currant for England and Scotland and the Thai pepper for Vietnam dishes.

• The Meat-o-Meter:  This is one of the interesting highlights of this “review.” It was noted that the meats used in the different cultures are widely varied. For instance, bacon is a staple in American-Southern, German and Irish cuisines, but it is nowhere to be seen in Jewish, Thai and Greek cuisines. “The use of most other meats is similarly diverse.” So, Priceonomics features an interactive “Meat-o-Meter” to allow interested foodies, food writers /bloggers and analysts to check the meat preferences in the different national cuisines.

So, if you’re wondering what makes Chinese cuisine Chinese, or some other cuisines for that matter, part of it is the ingredients. But really, there’s more to a cuisine. For instance, there are unique food preparations that are practiced in certain cuisines, such as sautéing in Chinese  using high flames.